Shower bath is becoming popular as simple bathing means owing to its ease in preparation for bathing and saving of space, but shower bathing is hard to get warmth and obtain relaxed feeling, and there is a gap from the bath tub bathing practice based on the traditional bath culture in Japan. To eliminate this gap, various shower bath apparatuses have been proposed. For example, Japanese Laid-open Patent No. 61-94616 proposes a shower box as shown in FIG. 43, in which a ring-shaped reciprocating shower head is disposed around a chair having a mesh back rest and a seat, so that the user sits on the seat to have shower automatically. More specifically, a chair A6 comprising a back rest A3 and a seat A4 made of mesh A5 is disposed in a box A1, and an all-direction shower head A7 has a plurality of shower nozzles A8 disposed at the inner side of a ring-shaped pipe, covering the chair A6 from back and forth, right and left, while allowing a sufficient space for accommodating the body of the user between the chair A6 and the front portion Aa of the all-direction shower head A7, and reciprocates between the upper end Ab and lower end Ac of the chair A6. In a seated position on the chair, the all-direction shower reciprocates between the back rest and the seat while jetting showering from around the whole body, so that showering is very easy.
However, in this conventional shower bath apparatus disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Patent No. 61-94616, the hot water from the all-direction shower head A7 having a plurality of shower nozzles A8 disposed at the inner side of the ring-shaped pipe is applied only in part of the body at once, and only part of the body provided with hot water from the shower head A7 when the shower head A7 passes can be warmed, which is far from the bath tub bathing for warming the whole body simultaneously.
Incidentally, a nozzle for jetting fluid was proposed, for example, as shown in FIG. 44.
In FIG. 44, a nozzle main body 1 has a flow inlet 2 in which fluid flows, a swirl unit 3 in which the incoming fluid swirls, a swirl chamber 4 in which the fluid swirls sufficiently, and an injection hole 5 from which the swirling fluid is injected. The fluid flowing in from the flow inlet 2 flows into two swirl passages 6 in the swirl unit 3 as shown in FIG. 45, and flows at an angle determined by the swirl passages 6, and reaches the swirl chamber 4 from swirl holes 7 opened at specified angle in the swirl chamber 4. The fluid flowing out of two swirl holes 7 swirls in the swirl chamber 4, and is injected from the injection hole 5. At this time, the fluid is a swirl flow, which has an angular momentum different from the jet flow of fluid without swirl flow, and therefore when injected from the injection hole 5, it spreads in the radial direction. Therefore, the spray angle of the nozzle is wider, and the jet flow is atomized.
In such conventional spray nozzle, however, since only two swirl holes 7 are provided in the swirl unit 3, sufficient swirl force of fluid is not obtained, and the spay angle is narrow and mist particles are rough in size. In particular, when used at low pressure as in general household, the swirl force of fluid is much smaller, and mist particles are small in the conventional nozzle, and it is hard to realize a nozzle with a large spray angle.
To solve this problem, by reducing the size of the injection hole of the nozzle, a nozzle reduced in mist particle size and widened in spray angle has been proposed, but since the pressure loss is large, sufficient fluid flow rate is not obtained, and hence the application is limited to spraying of agricultural chemicals or the like.
Incidentally, concerning showering in seated position, since the floor is wet and slippery, in shower bathing, hand rails are often provided in the bath room to assist elderly users, in particular, for showring in standing position or when moving. For example, as proposed in Japanese Laid-open Patent No. 7-207869, as shown in FIG. 46, a hand rail A5 is provided on the wall of the bath room as an aid for standing and sitting of the user bathing in seated position, and a hand rail A4 is provided at the entrance of the bath room so as to rotate in the horizontal direction indoors and outdoors as an aid for entering or leaving the room.
Besides, showering in standing position is difficult for elderly users weak in physical strength, and showering in seated position is preferred, and such inventions are proposed recently. For example, according to Japanese Laid-open Patent No. 8-38377, as shown in FIG. 47, plural upward spray nozzles B15 for jetting hot water upward are disposed along the peripheral edge of a circular floor B11 of a floor panel B10. A shower unit B30 is provided in a wall panel B20 disposed in vertical state to the floor panel B10. The shower unit B30 comprises a handy shower nozzle B36, a faucet B32, an overhead shower nozzle B34 for spraying hot water in natural fall, and plural horizontal spray nozzles B35 disposed in the vertical direction to spray hot water in horizontal direction. The user sits on the floor panel B10, facing the shower unit B30, and is showered in a relaxed state by receiving hot water sprayed upward from the plural upward spray nozzles B15 by using the faucet B32 and handy shower nozzle B36.
Meanwhile, an integrated structure of hand rail and shower nozzle has been also proposed. For example, according to Japanese Laid-open Patent No. 6-335415, as shown in FIG. 48, a hand rail C6 is provided around the surface of a bath mirror main body C5, and a hand rail C8 of larger diameter incorporating a shower nozzle C7 is provided on this hand rail C6. Therefore, an elderly user can be bathed with shower while sitting opposite to the mirror, and can stand up easily by using the hand rail which also supports the shower nozzle C7.
In the prior art disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Patent No. 7-207869, however, the hand rail A5 provided on the wall in the bath room as an aid for standing and sitting of the user in the seated position is fixed on the wall, and therefore the seated user must move closer to the hand rail A5, and holds this hand rail when standing and sitting, and therefore the user is required to move the body according to the hand rail.
In Japanese Laid-open Patent No. 8-38377 allowing an elderly user weak in physical strength to have shower in seated position, not in standing position very large in burden, there is no aid for standing or sitting, and the burden due to standing or sitting before and after bathing occurs. It is also a problem that the nozzle provided on the floor is an obstacle when moving within the bath room.
In Japanese Laid-open Patent No. 6-335415 in which the shower nozzle for seated position and the hand rail are assembled in one body, it is necessary to stretch hand up to the hand rail when standing up from the seated position, and depending on the seated position, it is a burden for the shoulder joint of the user to stretch the hand, and it is far from the shower apparatus allowing the user to bathe in a relaxed state to warm the whole body simultaneously.